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DANGERS TO FREEDOM, 

AND 

NEW DUTIES 

FOR ITS DEFENDERS. 

A LETTER, 

ItY THE 

HON. HORACE MANN, 

TO HIS CONSTITUENTS, 

MAY 3, 1850. 



B S T N : 

REDDING AND COMPANY, 

1850. 



NEW DANGERS 

TO FKEEDOM, 

AND 

NEW DUTIES 

FOR ITS DEFENDERS: 

A LETTEE 

BY THE 

HON. HORACE MANN 

It 

TO HIS CONSTITUENTS, 
MAY 3, 1850. 



BOSTON: 

KEDDINa AND COMPANY, 

1850. 



y7 y; -O 



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v to> 



DAMRELL & MOORE, PRINTERS, NO. 16 DEVONSHIRE STREET. 



LETTER. 



West Newton, May 3, 1850. 

To the Honorable James Richardson, I. Cleveland, and John Gardner, 
of Dedhain ; Honorable D. A. Simmons, John J. Clarke, Franci3 
Billiard and George R. Russell, of Roxbury, &c. 

Gentlemen : — Having been called home on account of sickness in my 
family, I have just received, at this place, your kind invitation to meet and 
address my constituents of the 8th Congressional District, and to give them 
my " vieAos and opinions upon the question of the immediate admission of 
California, and other questions now before Congress arising out of the 
acquisition of territory hij the treaty with Mexico.'''' 

A request from so high a source has almost the force of a command. Yet 
I dare not promise to comply. I am liable at any moment to be recalled, 
and, instead of speaking here, to vote there, upon the questions to which 
you refer. I might be summoned to return on the day appointed for us to 
meet. The only alternative, therefore, which is left me, is to address you 
by letter. Tbis T will do, if I can find time. I shall thus comply with 
your request, in substance, if not in form. 

On many accounts, I have the extremest reluctance to appear before the 
public on the present occasion. My views, on some vital questions, diflfer 
most materially from those of gentlemen for whom I have felt the profound- 
est respect ; and for some of whom I cherish the strongest personal attach- ■ 
ment. But I feel, on the other hand, that my constituents, having entrusted 
to me some of their most precious interests, are entitled to know my " views 
and opinions " respecting the hopes and the dangers that encompass them. 
I shall not, therefore, take the responsibility of declining. 

I will premise further, that my relations to political parties, for many 



years past, have left me as free from all partisan bias " as the lot of human- 
ity will admit." For twelve years I held an ofl&ce whose duties required 
me to abstain from all active cooperation in political conflicts ; and that duty 
was so religiously fulfilled, that, to my knowledge, I was never charged with 
its violation. During the Presidential contest of 1848, those obligations of 
neutrality still rested upon me. For a year afterwards, I was not called upon 
to do any official act displeasing to any party amongst us. This interval 
I employed in forming the best opinion I could of public men and measures, 
and their influence upon the moral and industrial interests of the country. 
I had long entertained most decided convictions in favor of protecting 
American labor, in favor of cheap postage, and of security to the lives and 
property of our fellow-citizens engaged in commerce. But a new question had 
arisen, — the great question of Freedom or Slavery in our recently acquired 
territories, — and this question I deemed, for the time being, to be, though 
not exclusive of others, yet paramount to them. Or rather, I saw that nothing 
could be so favorable to all the last named interests, as the proper adjustment 
of the first. He who would provide for the welfare of mankind must first 
provide for their liberty. 

Sympathizing, then, on different points with different parties, but ex- 
clusively bound to none, I stood, in reference to the great question of 
territorial freedom or slavery, in the position of the true mother in the litiga- 
tion before Solomon, preferring that the object of my love should be spared 
in the hands of any one, rather than perish in my own. 

Our present difficulties, which, as you well know, have arrested the gaze 
of the nation, and almost suspended the legislative functions of Congress, 
pertain to the destiny of freedom or of slavery, to which our new territories 
are to be consigned. After the acquisition of Louisiana, and Florida, and 
Texas, for the aggrandizement and security of the slave power ; after the 
aboriginal occupants of the soil of the Southern States have been slaughter- 
ed, or driven from their homes, at an expense of not less than a hundred 
millions of dollars, and at the infinite expense of our national reputation for 
justice and humanity ; and after the area of the Slave States has been made 
almost double that of the Free States, while the population of the Free is 
about double that of the Slave ; the reasons seem so strong that they can 
hardly be made stronger, why the career of our government as a slavery- 
extending power, should be arrested. On the other hand, the oligarchy 
who rule the South, seeins: that, notwithstanding their rich and almost 
Illimitable domain, they are rapidly falling behind the North in all the dis- 
tinctive elements of civilization and well-being, — industry, temperance, educa- 
tion, wealth, — not only defend the Upas that blasts their soil, as though it 
were the Tree of Life, but seek to transplant it to other lands. With 
but about three slaves to a square mile, — three millions of slaves to nearly 



a million of square miles, — they say they are too crowdecl, that they feel a 
sense of h-ufFocation, and must have more room, when all their weakness and 
pain proceed, not from the Umited quantity, but from the bad quality of the 
atmosphere they breathe. Hence the war with Mexico, commenced and 
prosecuted to add slave territory and slave States to the Southern section. 
Hence the refusal to accept propositions of peace, unless territory south of 
latitude 36 deg. 30 min. (the Missouri compromise line, so called), should 
be ceded to us. Hence when the Mexican negotiators proposed to insert a 
prohibition of slavery in the treaty of cession, and declared that the Inquisi- 
tion would not be more odious to the American people than the reinstitution 
of slavery to them, our minister, Mr. Trist, told them he would not consent 
to such a prohibition, though they would cover the soil a foot deep with gold. 
And hence, also, the determination of a portion of the Southern members of 
Conu-ress, to stop the whole machinery of government, to sacrifice all the 
great interests of the country, and assail even the Union itself, unless 
slavery shall be permitted to cross the Rio Grande, and enter the vast 
regions of the West, as it heretofore crossed the Mississippi and the Sabine. 

Even in 1846, when the war against JNIexico was declared, all men of sagac- 
ity foresaw the present conflict. Could that question have been decided on 
its merits ; or could the institutions to be planted upon the territory we might 
acquire, be determined by the unbiased suffrages of the American people, 
no war would have been declared, and no territory acquired. But the great 
political leaders of the South expected to make up both for their numerical 
weakness and for the injustice of their cause, by connecting the question of 
slavery-extension with that of future Presidential elections, and with the 
strife of parties. They promised themselves that they could draw over 
leading Northern men to their support, by offering them the Tantalus cup of 
Presidential honors ; and then by the force of party cohesion and discipline 
ensure the support of the whole descending-scale of office expectants. Early 
in the present session of Congress, it was distinctly declared from a high 
Southern source, that the South must do most for those Northern men who 
would do most for them. A few words will make it apparent how faithfully 
this plan has been adhered to, and how successful it is likely to become. 

No Northern Democrat, opposed to slavery extension, could expect the sup- 
port of the Southern Democracy. Hence, Gen. Cass stept promptly forward, 
and declared in his Nicholson letter, that Congress had no power to exclude 
slavery from the territories. This has been technically called his "bid," or 
his "first bid." It was deemed satisfactory by the South ; for, according 
to their philosophy, the relation of master and slave is the natural or normal 
relation of mankind ; and therefore, where no prohibition of it exists, 
slavery flows into free territory, as water runs down hill. This avowal of 
Gen. Cass was rendered more signal and valuable to the South, because. 



6 

for the greater part of his political life, he had taken oaths, held offices and 
administered laws, in undeniable contradiction to the declaration then made. 
The Ordinance of 1787 was expressly recognized by the First Conoress, 
held under the Constitution, [See ch. 8.] It was modified in part, and con- 
firmed as to the rest ; and in holding offices under this, Gren. Cass had laid 
the foundation of his honors and his fortune. His declaration, therefore, 
against all interdiction of slavery, made under circumstances so exti'aordi- 
nary and in contradiction of the whole tenor of his past life, was hailed with 
acclamation by the South, and he was unanimously declared, at Baltimore, 
to be the accepted candidate of the Democracy, for the office of President. 
The common notion is that a man shows his love for a cause by the amount 
of sacrifice he will make for it ; and as consistency, honor and truth, are 
the most precious elements in character, who could sacrifice more than he ! 

To the honor of the Whig party be it said, there was not a Northern man 
to be found, who, to gain the support of the South, would espouse its pro- 
slavery doctrines, or invent any new reading of the Constitution to give 
them a semblance of law. Hence, at the Philadelphia Convention, no 
Northern Whig received even so much as a complimentary vote. The judicial 
eminence of Judge McLean, the military eminence of Gen. Scott, were 
passed contemptuously by; and Mr. Webster, acknowledged to be the great- 
est statesman of the age, received but fourteen votes, out of almost three 
hundred ; and twelve of these were from Massachusetts. Mr. Webster had 
spoken more eloquent words for Liberty than any other living man, and this 
distinguished neglect was doubtless intended to teach him the lesson, that 
the path to Presidential honors did not lie through an advocacy of the rights 
of man. Gen. Taylor was nominated and chosen. He was understood to 
take neutral ground. Discountenancing the veto power, yet, if the House 
of Representatives, who are chosen directly from and by the people, and the 
Senate who are chosen by the States, will pass a territorial bill, either with 
or without a prohibition of slavery, he will approve it. This is the common 
opinion, and I have no doubt of its correctness. 

Under these circumstances, a most desperate effort was made at the close 
of the last Congress to provide a government for the territories, with no pro- 
hibtion of slavery. Had Gen. Cass been elected, no such effort would have 
been necessary, for he was pledged to veto a prohibition. Gen. Taylor was 
supposed to be pledged to an oppo,site course ; and hence the struggle. 
The facts must be so fresh in the recollection of all that they hardly need to 
be recounted. The House performed its duty to the country and to freedom, 
by sending territorial bills to the Senate, containing the prohibitory clause. 
The Senate, equalling the northern by its southern votes, and far out-number- 
ing the Whigs by its Democrats, left those bills to sleep the sleep of death 
upon its table. But during the closing hours of the session, it foisted a pro- 



vision for the government of the territories, into the general appropriation 
bill ; and held out tlie menace that this bill should not pass at all, unless the 
territorial clause should pass with it. The flagitiousness of this proceeding, 
it is difficult to comprehend and impossible to describe. The appropriation 
bill is one on which the working, and even the continuance of the govern- 
ment depend. Without it the machinery of the State must cease to move. 
Contracts by the government to pay money must be violated. Officers can- 
nut obtain their salaries. Families must be left without subsistence. If 
long continued, all judges would resign and courts be broken up ; and when 
justice should cease to be administered, violence, robbery, and every form of 
crime would run riot through the land. 

Besides, an appropriation bill and a bill for the government of territories, 
have no congruity with each other ; they are not I'elevant ; neither is ger- 
mane to the other. Every one knows it to be a common parliamentary rule 
that when a proposition is submitted which is susceptible of division, any 
one member has a right to demand it. All bills, too, for raising revenue 
must, by the Constitution, originate in the House ; and the House has as 
much right to interfere to prevent the Senate from ratifying a treaty, as the 
Senate has to obstruct the passage of a revenue bill, by adding to it ex- 
traneous provisions. It was this effort on the part of the Senate to in- 
corporate into the appropriation bill a provision most unrighteous in itself 
and most odious to the free sentiments of the North, which led to the pro- 
tracted session on the night of the 3d of March, 1849. The course of the 
pro-slavery leaders, on that occasion, resembled that of a madman who should 
seize a torch, and stand over the magazine of a ship, and proclaim that he 
would send men and vessel to destruction, unless they would steer for his 
port. A portion of the House confederated with the majority of the Senate, 
in this unprincipled machination ; but the larger number stood undaunted, 
and after perils such as so precious an interest never before encountered, the 
pro-slavery amendment was stricken out, and its (jhampions were foiled. 
Through that memorable night, the friends of freedom wrestled like Jacob 
with the angel of God, and though the session did not close until the sun of 
a Sabbath morning shone full into the windows of the Capitol, yet a holier 
work never was done on that holy day. 

It was with a joy .such as no words can ever express, that I saw the 
territories rescued from the clutch of slavery by the expiration of the 
Thirtieth Congress. I felt confident that when the Thirty-first Conoress 
should assemble, it would be under better auspices, and with a stronger 
phalanx on the side of freedom. In regard to California, those hopes have 
been fulfilled ; but I proceed to state how they have been nearly extinguish- 
ed in regard to the residue of the territory. 

Our first disaster was the election of a most adroit, talented and zealous 



8 

pro-slavery Speaker. A better organ for the accomplishment of their 
purposes the friends of Slavery could not have found, nor the friends of 
Freedom a more formidable opponent. Whilst the pro-slavery champions 
of the South, almost without distinction of party, exulted over this triumph, 
it has been the occasion of most lamentable criminations and recriminations 
at the North. They abandon all distinctions of Whig or Democrat for the 
cause of Slavery ; would to God we could do as much for the cause of 
Freedom. 

The choice of a pro-slavery Speaker was immediately followed by the 
appointment of most ultra pro-slavery committees. Some Free Soil members, 
it is true, were placed upon these committees ; but in this the Speaker only 
carried out more fully his own purposes and those of his party, by putting 
what they considered as insane men into close custody, instead of letting 
them run at large. He showed, however, either a want of courage in him- 
self, or of confidence in his chosen guards ; for, on the District of Columbia 
committee he detailed a file of five, on the Judiciary committee a file of four, 
and on the Territorial committee a file of six strong pro-slavery men for the 
safe keeping of one Free Soiler. 

Within an hour after the House was organized, Mr. Root of Ohio sub- 
mitted a resolution, instructing the Committee on Territories to report 
territorial bills, prohibiting slavery. Many true friends to freedom believed 
this movement to be ill-timed and unfortunate ; and though the House then 
refused, by a handsome vote, to lay the resolution on the table, yet when it 
came up for consideration again, the first decision was reversed by about 
the same majority. There is abundant proof that the latter vote did not 
express the true sentiment of the House. Not a few voted against the 
resolution avowedly because of its paternity — thus spiting a noble son on 
account of its obnoxious father. Others repented of their votes as soon as 
they came to reflect that the record would go where their explanation could 
not accompany it. 

But unfortunately, it was too late. There stands the record, to survive 
through all time, and to be read of all men. The champions of slavery 
seized upon this vote as a propitious omen. They derided and scouted the 
proviso with a fierceness unknown before. They shouted their threats of 
disunion with a more defiant tone, should any attempt at what they called its 
resurrection, be made. A speech was delivered, in which a massacre of a 
majority of the House was distinctly shadowed forth, so that not " a quorum 
should be left to do business." The effect of that vote was almost as bad as 
though it meant what it said. 

At a later day, when a bill for the admission of California was presented, 
the tactics of delay were resorted to, and midnight found us calling the yeas 



and nays, for more than the thh'tieth time, on questions whose frivolousness 
and vexatiousness cannot be indicated by numbers. 

The proceedings in the Senate, however, are those which now threaten the 
most disastrous consequences. Early in the session, in order to bring his North- 
ern friends up to the doctrine that it is unconstitutional to legislate upon slavery 
in the territories, Gen. Cass made a speech, in which he denies that Congress 
has any power, under any circumstances, to pass any law respecting their 
inhabitants. According to that speech, the United States stands in the re- 
lation of a foreign government to the people of its own territories ; and if 
they set up a king or establish a religion, we cannot help it ; for we have no 
more power or right to control them, than we have the subjects of Great 
Britain, or the citizens of France. It has been said that the doctrine of 
Gen. Cass and that of Gen. Taylor, on this subject, are identical ; but there 
is this all-important difference between them : Gen. Taylor maintains the right 
of Congress to legislate for the territories, and will doubtless approve any 
bill for the prohibition of slavery in them ; but Gen. Cass, denying this right 
in Cono-ress, would, if President, veto such a bill. He, therefore, would 
leave the territories open to be invaded and possessed by slavery ; and in 
Southern law and practice, possession is more than nine points. 

Next came Mr. Clay's compromise resolutions, so called. By these, 
California was to be admitted as a State ; the territories organized without any 
restriction upon slavery ; the Southwestern boundary of Texas to be ex- 
tended to the Rio Grande ; apart of her twelve or fifteen million debt to be 
paid by the United States, on condition of her abandoning her claim to that 
part of New Mexico which lies east of the Rio Grande ; the abolition of the 
slave trade in the District of Columbia, and the inviolability of slavery in 
the District during the good pleasure of Maryland and of the inhabitants of 
the District ; more effectual provision for the restitution of fugitive slaves, 
and free traffic in slaves forever between the States, unless forbidden by 
themselves. 

A compromise is a settlement of difficulties by mutual concessions. Let 
us examine the mutuality of the concessions which Mr. Clay's resolutions 
propose. 

In the first place, California is to be permitted to remain free, if the ter- 
ritories of New jVIexico and Utah may be opened to slavery. But Califor- 
nia is free already ; free by her own act ; free without any concession of 
theirs, and without any grace but the grace of God. It is mainly occupied 
by a Northern population, who do their -own work, with their own hands, or 
their own brains. Fifty hardy gold diggers from the North will never stand 
all day knee-deep in water, shovel earth, rock washers, &c., under a broiling 
sun, and see a man with his fifty slaves standing under the shade of a tree, 
or having an umbrella held over his head, with whip in hand, and without 



10 

wetting his dainty glove, or soiling his japanned boot, pocket as much at 
night as the whole of thoni together. Or rather, they will never suffer 
institutions to exist which tolerate such unrighteousness. California, there- 
fore, is free ; as free as Massachusetts ; and Mr. Clay might as well have said 
in terms, that, whereas Massachusetts is free, therefore New Mexico and 
Utah shall be slave, or run the hazard of being so. 

Tlie next point of Mr. Clay's compromise is, that Texas shall extend her 
Southwestern lioundary from or near the Nueces to the Rio Grande, and shall 
receive, probably, some six or eight millions of dollars for withdrawing her 
claim to that part of New Mexico wliich lies east of the last named river. 
Now, Texas has no rightful or plausible claim to a foot of all this territory. 
But suppose it to be a subject of doubt, and therefore of compromise. The 
mutuality, then, consists in dividing the whole territory claimed by Texas, 
and then giving her a valid title to one portion of it, and paying her for all 
the rest. Texas, or, — what in this connection is the same thing, — slavery, 
surrenders absolutely nothing, gets a good title to some hundred thousand 
square miles of territory, and pay for as much more ! 

But what renders it almost incredible that any man could soberly submit 
such a proposition and dare to call it a compromise, is this : All that part of New 
Mexico which Texas claims, and which lies between the parallels of 36° 30' 
and 42°, is, by the Resolutions of Annexation, to be forever free. I shall 
consider the constitutionality of these resolutions by and by ; I now treat 
them as valid. Now the compromise proposes to buy this territory, so 
secured to freedom, and annex it to New Mexico, which is to be left open to 
slavei-y. We are to peril all the broad region between 36° 30' and 42°, and 
pay Texas some six or eight millions of dollars for the privilege of doing so ! 
Mr. Clay is not less eminent for his statesmanship than for liis waggery. Were 
he to succeed in playing off this practical joke upon the North, and were it 
not for the horrible consequences which it would involve, a roar of laughter, 
like a feu de joie, would run down the course of the ages. As it is, the 
laughter will be "Elsewhere.'' 

The nest point pertains to the abolition of the slave trade, and the per- 
petuity of slavery in the District of Columbia. This District has an area 
of about fifty square miles ; and Mr. Clay proposes, in consideration of 
transferi'ing its slave marts to Alexandria, on the Virginia side, or to .some 
convenient place in Montgomery or Prince Greorge's county, on the Mary- 
land side, to divest Congress forever of its right of " exclusive legislation " 
over it. Should this plan prevail, the perpetuity of slavery in the District 
will be defended by more unassailable and impregnable barriers than any 
other institution in Christendom. The President has a veto upon Congress; 
but two-thirds of both houses may still pass any law, notwithstanding his 
dissent. Mr. Clay proposes to give, both to Maryland and to the citizens of 



11 

the District, a veto on this subject ; — an absolute veto, not a quahQed one, 
like tliat of the l-'resident of the United States, but one that will eontrol, 
not luajorities merely, but an absolute unanimity in both blanches of Con- 
gress. By his plan, therefore, throe separate, inde})endent powers are 
to have a veto upon the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
And not only so, but while it will require their joint or concurrent action 
to abolish the institution, any one of them can preserve it. The laws of the 
Medes and Persians had no such guaranties for perpetuity as this. 

Mr. Clay's last point is really too facetious. So solemn a subject does 
not permit such long-continued levity, however it may be masked by sobriety 
of countenance. It is that Congress shall make more effectual provision for 
the capture and delivery of fugitive slaves ; and, as an equivalent for this, it 
shall bind itself never to interfere with the inter-State trafhc in slaves. We 
are to catch their slaves., and, as though that were a grateful privilege to us, 
we are to allow them free commerce in slaves, coastwise or inland. By this 
means, slaves can be transported to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and some 
hundreds of miles up that river, towards New Mexico, instead of being 
driven in coffles across the country. The compromise is, that for every 
slave we catch, we are to facilitate the passage of a hundred into New 
Mexico. 

Such is the mutuality of Mr. Clay's compromises. They are such com- 
promises as the wolf offers to the lamb, or the vulture to the dove. They 
make the rightful admission of California into the Union, with her free con- 
stitution, contingent upon opening the new territories to slavery ; they 
ratify one part of the predatory claim of Texas, and propose to give her mil- 
lions for the other part ; they give an vineonditional veto to the State of 
Maryland and to the citizens of the District of Columbia, over a unanimous 
vote of both Houses of Congress, even when approved by the President ; in 
connection with Mr. Butler's bill and Mr. Mason's amendments, they expose 
our white citizens to grievous penalties and imprisonments for not doinf 
what the Supreme Court of the United States has decided we are not bound 
to do, in relation to fugitive slaves, and they offer our colored citizens to 
be kidnapped and spirited away into bondage ; and they foreclose, in 
fiivor of the South, the disputed question of the inter-State commerce in 
slaves. In one particular only do they appear to concede anything to North- 
ern rights, or Northern convictions, or Northern feelings. They propose to 
transfer the District of Columbia slave-trade across an ideal line into 
Virginia or into Maryland, so that the slave-planter or slave-trader, when he 
comes to our American Congo to replenish his stock of human cattle, shall 
be obliged to go a mile or two, to the slave-marts, instead of walkino- down 
Pennsylvania Avenue. I deem this to be no concession. If it is honorable 
to produce corn and cotton, it is honorable to buy and sell them ; and, if it 



12 

is honorable to hold beings created in God's image, in slavery, it is hon- 
orable to stand between the producer and the consumer, and to make mer- 
chandise of the bodies and the souls of men. Let this Light of the Age be 
set upon a hill that all nations may behold it. 

I will refer to Mr. Bell's resolutions no further than to say that they pro- 
pose the formation of three slaves States out of what is now claimed by 
Texas, one of which is to be admitted into the Union forthwith as an offset 
to California. 

Mr. Buchanan has not regarded the movements of his rival. Gen. Cass, 
with indifference. He has spent a considerable portion of the winter in 
Washington, and it is understood that he holds out the Missouri compromise 
line, from the Western boundary of Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, as his 
lune to the South, for their favorable regards in the ensuing Presidential 
contest. 

In a chronological order I must now consider some vitally important views, 
which have been submitted by some members in the House, and by Mr. 
Webster and others in the Senate. In mentioning the name of this great 
statesman, and in avowing that I am one among the many whom his recently 
expressed opinions have failed to convince, it is due to myself, however in- 
different it may be to him or to his friends, that I should express my admi- 
ration of his powers, my gratitude for his past services, and the diffidence 
with which I dissented, at first, from his views. But I have pondered upon 
them long, and the longer I have pondered, the more questionable they ap- 
pear. I shall therefore venture upon the perilous task of inquiring into their 
correctness ; and while I do it with the deference and respect which belong 
to his character, I shall do it also with that fidelity to conscience and to judg- 
ment that belong to mine. He is great, but truth is greater than us all. 

I shall confine myself mainly, and perhaps wholly, to Mr. Webster's 
views, because he has argued the cause of the South with vastly more abili- 
ty than it has been argued by any one among themselves. If his conclu- 
sions, then, be not tenable, their case is lost.* 

Mr. Webster casts away the " Proviso" altogether. He says " {/" « res- 
olution or a law ivere now before us to provide a territorial government 
for New Mexico, I would not vote to put any prohibition into it what- 
ever;''^ p. 44. The reason given is, that slavery is already excluded from 
" California and New Mexico " " by the law of nature, of physical geography, 
the law of the formation of the earth." p. 42. " California and New Mex- 
ico are Asiatic in their formation and scenery. They are composed of vast 

*A11 my quotations from Mr. Webster are taken from the edition of his speech 
which he dedicated to the "People of Massachusetts," March 18, 1850. 
Among the numerous readings which have appeared, I suppose this to be the 
most authentic. 



13 

ridges of mountains of enormous height, with broken ridges and deep val- 
leys ;" p. 43. 

Now this is drawing moral conclusions from physical promises. It is 
arguing from physics to metaphysics. It is determining the law of the spirit 
by geographical phenomena. It is undertaking to settle by mountains and 
rivers, and not by the Ten Commandments, a great question of human duty. 
It abandons the second commandment of Christ and all Bills of Rights 
enacted in conformity thereto, and leaves our obligations to our " neighbor " 
to be determined by the accidents of earth and water and air. To ascertain 
whether a people will obey the divine command, and do to others as they 
would be done by, it looks at the thermometer. What a problem would this 
be ? " Required the height above the level of the sea, at which the oppressor 
' will undo the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free, and break every 
yoke,' — to be determined barometrically." Alas ! this cannot be done. 
Slavery depends, not upon Climate, but upon Conscience. Wherever the 
wicked passions of the human heart can go, there slavery can go. Slavery 
is an effect. Avarice, sloth, pride, and the love of domination are its cause. 
In ascending mountain sides, at what altitude do men leave these passions be- 
hind them ? Different vegetable growths are to be found at different heights, 
depending also upon the zone. This I can understand. There is the altitude 
of the palm, the altitude of the oak, the altitude of the pine, and far above 
them all the line of perpetual snow. But in regard to innocence and guilt, 
where is the white line ?■ How high up can a slave-holder go and not lose his 
free agency? At what elevation will the whip fall from the hand of the mas- 
ter, and the fetter from the limbs of the slave? There is no such point. Free- 
dom and slavery on the one hand, and climate and geology on the other, are 
incommensurable quantities. We might as well attempt to determine a ques- 
tion in theology by the cube root, or a question in ethics by the Black Art. 
Slavery being a crime founded upon human passions can go wherever those 
passions are unrestrained. It has existed in Asia from the earliest ages, 
notwithstanding its " formation and scenery." It labors and groans on the 
flanks of the Ural mountains now. There are to-day forty-eight millions of 
slaves in Russia, not one rood of which comes down so low as the Northern 
boundary of California and New Mexico. 

Had Mr. Webster's philosophy been correct, then California was at super- 
fluous pains when she incorporated the Ordinance of 1787 into her Consti- 
tution. Instead of saying that " slavery and involuntary servitude, (except 
for crime,) shall be forever prohibited," she should have said " Whereas by 
a law of nature, of physical geography, the law of the formation of the 
earth," — "slavery cannot exist in California," therefore we will not " re- 
afiirm an ordinance and statute, nor reiinact the will of God." 

Should it be said that slavery will not go into the new territories, because 



14 

it fe unprofitable, I ask whore is it profitable '? Where is ignorance so 
profitable as knowledge ? Where is ungodliness gain, even for the things 
of this life'? How little is the hand worth at one end of an arm, if there is 
not a brain at the other'? Do not Maryland, Virginia. North Carolina, and 
other States, furnish witnesses by thousands and tens of thousands, that 
slavery impoverishes ? Yet with what enthusiasm they cherish it. Grenerally, 
ignorance is a necessary concomitant of slavery. Of white persons, over 
twenty years of age, unable to read and write, there were, according to the 
last census, 58,787 in Virginia. 56.609 in North Carolina, 58,513 in Ten- 
nessee, and so forth. I have a letter before me received this morning, 
dated in lu'liana, in which the writer says he removed from North Carolina, 
in 1802, when he was fourteen years old, and at that time he had never 
seen a newspaper in his life. Can there be genius, the inventive talent, or 
profitable labor, where ignorance is so dense '? Can the oppression that 
tramples out voluntary industry, intelligence, enterprise, and the desire of 
independence, conduce to riches ? Yet this is done wherever slavery exists, 
and is part and parcel of its working. Is any other form of robbery profit- 
able 1 Yet individuals and communities have practised it and lived by it, 
and we may as well rely upon a " law of physical geography " to arrest the 
one as the other. It is not poetry, but literal truth, that the breath of the 
slave blasts vegetation, his tears poison the earth, and his groans strike it 
with stertility. It would be easy to show why the master does not abandon 
slavery, even amid the desolation with which it has surrounded him. There 
is a combination of poverty and pride, which slavery produces, 07i the doc- 
trine of natural appetence, and which, therefore, it exactly fits. The help- 
lessness of the master in regard to all personal wants, seems to necessitate 
the slavery that has begotten it. All moral and religious principles are low- 
ered till they conform to the daily practice. Custom blinds conscience, 
until, without any attempt to emancipate or ameliorate their victims, men 
can preach and pray and hold slaves, as Hamlet's grave-digger jests and 
sings while he turns up skulls. 

But slavery cannM go into California or New Mexico, because their staple 
productions are not " tobac-eo, com, cotton or rice;" p. 44. These are 
agricultural products. But is slave labor confined to agriculture "? Suppose 
that predial slavery will not become common in the new territories. Cannot 
menial t K slaves cannot do field-wfirk, cannot they do house-work ? There 
is an opening for a hundred thousand slaves to-day, and in the new territo- 
ries, for purposes of domestic labor. And beyond this, let me ask, who 
posesses any such geologic vision that, at the distance of a thou.sand miles, he 
can penetrate the valleys and gorges of New Mexico, and say that gold will 
not yet be found there as it is in California, — not in sand and gravel only, 
but in forty-eight pounders and in fifty-sixes ? This is the very kind of 



16 

labor on which slaves, in all time, have been so extenpively ernployefl, — the 
very labor on which a million of slaves in Hispaniola lost their lives, within 
a few years after its discovery by Columbus. Gold deposits are now worked 
within twonty-five miles of Santa Fe. The last account which I have seen, 
of a company of emigrants passing from Santa Fe to California by the river 
Gila, announces rich discoveries of gold upon that river. A fellow-citizen of 
mine has just returned home, who says he saw a slave sold at the mines in Cali- 
fornia, in September last. As yet, the di.stant regions of the Gila and the 
Colorado cannot be worked, because of the Apaches, the TJtahs, and other 
tribes of Indians. But admit slavery there, and the power of the govern- 
ment will be invoked to exterminate these Indians, as it was Viefore to exter- 
minate the Cherokees and Seminoles, — not to drive them beyond the Missis- 
sippi, but be^-^ond the Styx. A few days since a letter was publi.^lied in the 
papers, dated on boaad a steamer descending the Mississippi, which stated 
that a considerable number of slaves were on board, bound for California, 
under an agreement with their masters that they should be free after serving 
two years at the mines. We know, too, that the reason assigned for incor- 
porating a provision in the constitution of California, authorizing its Legis- 
lature to pass laws for the exclusion of free blacks from the State, was that 
slaves would be brought there under this very form of agreement, and, by and 
by, the country would be overspread by people of color who had bought their 
freedom. The sagacious men who framed the California constitution came from 
all parts of the territoiy, and, being collected on the spot, having surveyed 
all its mountains, having breathed its air at all temperatures, and turned up 
its golden .soil, — these men had never discovered any "law of phy>ioal geog- 
raphy " which the fell spirit of slavery could not transgress. Slaves were 
carried into Oregon, ten degrees of latitude higher up. Its colonists reen- 
acted the Ordinance of 1787, before Congress gave them a territorial gov- 
ernment. In the territorial government that was given them, the prohibi- 
tion was inserted ; and President Folic signed the bill, with an express 
protest, that he ratified this exclusion of slavery only because the country 
lay north of the Missouri compromise line ; but declared that, had it em- 
braced the very region in question, he would have vetoed the bill 

Gen. Cass never took the ground that slavery could not exist in the new 
territories ; and no inconsiderable part of the opposition made to him in 
Massachusetts and in other free States, was placed expressly upon the 
ground that he would not prohibit it. Mr. Webster, in his Marshfield speech, 
Sept. 1, 1848, opposed the election of Gen. Cass, because, through hi.s recre- 
ancy to Northern principles, slavery would invade the territories. This was 
expressed with his usual clearness and force, as follows : 

" He, [Gen. Cass,] will surely have the Senate; and with the patronage 
of the government, with every interest that he, as a Northern man, can bring 



16 

to bear, cooperaring with every interest that the South can bring to bear, 
we cry safety before we are out of the woods, if we feel that there is no 
danger as to these new territories.^^ 

Yet Mr. Webster now says that to support the " Proviso," would "do 
disgrace to his own understanding;" p. 46. 

During the same campaign, also, the Honorable Rufus Choate, one of the 
most eloquent men in New England, and known to be the personal friend 
of Mr. Webster, delivered a speech at Salem, in which the following 
passage occurs : 

" It is the passage of a law to say that California and New Mexico shall 
remain forever free. That is, fellow-citizens, undoubtedly, an object of 
great and transcendent importance ; for there is none who will deny that we 
should go up to the very limits of the Constitution itself, and with the wis- 
dom of the wisest, and zeal of the most zealous, should unite to accomplish 
this great object, and to defeat the always detested, and forever to be de- 
tested object of the dark ambition of that candidate of the Baltimore Con- 
vention, who has ventured to pledge himself in advance that he will veto 
the future law of freedom ; and may God avert the madness of all those 
who hate slavery and love freedom, that would unite in putting him in the 
place where his thrice accursed pledge may be redeemed ! .... Is 
there a Whig upon this floor who doubts that the strength of the Whig party 
next March will ensure freedom to California and New IMexico, if by the 
Constitution they are entitled to freedom at all? Is there a member of 
Congress that would not vote for freedom ? You know there is not one. 
Did not every Whig member of Congress from the free States vote at the 
last session for freedom ? You know that every man of them returned home 
covered with the thanks of his constituents for that vote. Is there a single 
Whig constituency, in any free State in this country, that would return any 
man that would not vote for freedom ? Do you believe that Daniel Webster 
himself could be returned if there was the least doubt upon the question^ " 

Mr. Choate then adds : — " Upon this question alone, we always diflfer 
from those Whigs of the South ; and on that one, we propose simply to vote 
them down." Mr. Webster now says he will not join in voting them 
down. 

Under such circumstances is it frivolous or captious to ask for something 
more than a dogmatic assertion that slavery cannot impregnate these new 
regions, and cause them to breed monsters forever ? On a subject of such 
infinite importance I cannot be satisfied with a dictum ; I want a demonstra- 
tion. I cannot accept the prophecy without inquiring what spirit inspired 
the prophet. As a revelation from heaven it would be most delightful ; but, 
as it conflicts with all human experience, it requires at least one undoubted 
miracle to attest the divinity of its origin. 



17 

According to the last census, there were more than eight thousand 
persons of African blood in Massachusetts. Abolish the moral and religious 
convictions of our people, let slavery appear to be in their sight not only- 
lawful and creditable, but desirable as a badge of aristocratic distinction, and 
as a "political, social, moral and religious blessing," and what obj^tacle 
would prevent these eight thousand persons from being turned into slaves , 
on any day, by the easy, cheap and short-hand kidnapping of a legislative 
act ? Africans can exist here, for the best of all reasons, — they do exist here. 
A state of slavery would not stop their respiration, nor cause them to vanish 
" into thin air." Think, for a moment, of the complaints we constantly hear 
in certain circles, of the difficulty and vexatiousness of commanding domestic 
service. If no moral or religious objection existed against holding slaves, 
would not many of those respectable and opulent gentlemen who sign- 
ed the letter of thanks to Mr. Webster, and hundreds of others indeed, 
instead of applying to intelligence offices, or visiting emigrant ships for 
domestics, as we call them, go at once to the auction-room and buy a man 
or a woman with as little hesitancy or compunction as they now send to 
Brighton for beeves, or go to Tattersall's for a horse ? If the cold of the 
higher latitudes checks the flow of African blood, or benumbs African limbs, 
the slaveholder knows very well that a trifling extra expense for whips will 
make up for the difference. 

But suppose a doubt could be reasonably entertained about the invasion 
of the new territories by slavery. Even suppose the chances to preponderate 
against it. What then ? Are we to submit a question of human liberty, 
over vast regions and for an indefinite extent of time, to the determination 
of chance ? With all my faculties I say No ! Let me ask any man, let 
me respectfully ask Mr. Webster himself, if it were his own father and 
mother, and brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters, who were in peril 
of such a fate, whether he would abandon them to chance, — even to a favor- 
able chance. Would he suffer their fate to be determined by dice or 
divination, when positive prohibition was in his power ? And by what rule 
of Christian morality, or even of enlightened heathen morality, can we deal 
differently with the kindred of others from what we would with -our own ? 
He is not a Christian whose humanity is bounded by the legal degrees of 
blood, or by general types of feature. 

But Mr. Webster would not " taunt " the South. Neither would I. I 
would not taunt any honorable man, much less a criminal. Still, when the 
most precious interests of humanity are in peril, I would not be timid. I 
would not stop too long to cull lovers' phrases. Standing under the eye of 
God, in the forum of the world and before the august tribunal of posterity, 
when the litigants are Freedom and Tyranny, and human happiness and hu- 
man misery the prize they contest, it should happen to the sworn advocate 
2 



of Liberty, as Quintilian says it did to Isocrates, " not to speak and to plead, 
but to thunder and to lighten." Mr. Webster would not taunt the South ; 
and yet I say the South were never so insulted before, as he has insulted 
them. Common scoffs, jeers, vilifications, are flattery and sycophancy, 
compared with the indignities he heaped upon them. Look at the facts. 
The South waged war with Mexico from one and only one motive ; for one 
and only one object, — the extension of slavery. They refused peace unless 
it surrendered territory. That territory must be south of the abhorred line 
of 36 deg. 30 min. The same President who abandoned the broad belt of 
country on our northern frontier, from 49 deg. to 54 deg. 40 min., to which 
we had, in his own words, " an unquestionable title," would allow no pro- 
hibition of slavery to be imposed upon the territory which Mexico ceded, 
though she would bury it a foot deep in gold. The Proviso had been re- 
sisted in all forms, from the beginning. Southern Whigs voted against the 
ratification of the treaty, foreseeing the struggle that was to follow. Despe- 
rate efforts were made to smuggle in an unrestricted territorial government, 
against all parliamentary rule and all constitutional implication. The whole 
South, as one man, claimed it as a *' describable, weighable, estimable, tangi- 
ble " and most valuable " right," to carry slaves there. Calhoun, Berrien, 
Badger, Mason, Davis, — the whole Southern phalanx. Whig and Democrat, 
pleaded for it, argued for it, and most of them declared themselves ready to 
fight for it ; and yet Mr. Webster rises in his place, and tells them they 
are all moon-struck, hallucinated, fatuous ; because " an ordinance of Nature 
and the will of God " had settled this question from the beginning of the 
■world. Mr. Calhoun said, immediately after this speech, Give us free 
fecope and time enough, and we will take care of the rest. 

Mr. Mason said — 

" We have heard here from various quarters and from high quarters, and 
repeated on all hands, — repeated here again to-day by the honorable Senator 
from Illinois, (Mr. Shields,) that there is a law of nature which excludes 
the Southern people from every portion of the State of California. I know 
of no such law of nature, — none whatever ; but I do know the contrary, 
that if California had been organized with a territorial form of govern- 
ment only, and for which, at the last two sessions of Congress, she has 
obtained the entire Southern vote, the people of the Southern States 
would have gone there freely, and have taken their slaves there in great 
numbers. They would have done so because the value of the labor of that 
class would have been augmented to them many hundred fold. Why, in the 
debates which took place in the convention in California which formed the 
constitution, and which any Senator can now read for himself, after the pro- 
vision excluding slavery was agreed upon, it was proposed to prohibit the 
African race altogether, free as well as bond. A debate arose upon it ; and 
the ground was distinctly taken, as shown in those debates, that if the 



19 

entire African race was not excluded, their labor would be found so valuable 
that the owners of slaves would bring them there, even though slavery were 
prohibited, under a contract to manumit them in two or three years. And it 
required very little reasoning, on the part of those opposed to this class of 
population, to show that the productiveness of their labor would be such as to 
cause that result. An estimate was gone into with reference to the value of 
the labor of this class of people, showing that it would be increased to such 
an extent in the mines of California, that they could not be kept out. It 
was agreed that the labor of a slave in any one of the States from which 
they would be taken, was not worth more than one hundred or one hundred 
and fifty dollars a year, and that in California it would be worth from four 
to six thousand dollars. They would work themselves free in one or two 
years, and thus the country would be filled by a class of free blacks, and 
their former owners have an excellent bargain in taking them there." 

Yet Mr. Webster stands up before all this array, and says : " Gentlemen, 
you are beside yourselves. You have eaten hellebore. You would look more 
in character should you put on the 'cap and bells.' In sober sense, in 
seeing his object clearly and in pursuing it directly, Don Quixote was Dr. 
Franklin, compared with y^m. The dog in the fable, who dropped his meat 
to snap at its shadow, is no allegory in your case. I see two classes around 
me, — wise men and fools ; you do not belong to the former. The Chancellor 
who keeps the king's idiots should have custody of you." Such is a faith- 
ful abstract of what Mr. Webster said to Southern Senators, and through 
them to all the South. 

Here certainly was a reflection upon the understanding and intelligence 
of the South, such as never was cast upon them before. But the balm 
went with the sting. They bore the affront to their judgments, because it 
was so grateful to their politics and pockets. I think it no injustice to those 
Senators to say, that they would have nearly torn Mr. Webster in pieces 
for such a collective insult, if it had not promised to add fifty per cent, 
to their individual property, and to secure and perpetuate their political 
ascendancy. 

To help our conceptions in regard to Mr. Webster's course on this sub- 
ject, let us imagine a parallel case , — or rather, an approximate one, for there 
can be no parallel. Suppose a contest between the North and the South, on 
the subject of the Tariff, to have been raging for years. The sober blood 
of the North is heated to the fever-point. The newspapers treat of nothing 
else. Public meetings and private conversation discuss no other theme. 
Hundreds of delegates wait upon Congress, to add, if it be but a feather's 
weight, to the scale which holds their interests. Petitions flow in, in 
thousands and tens of thousands. It is announced that Mr. Calhoun will 
pour out his great mind on the subject. Expectation is on tiptoe. All eyes, 
from all sides of the country, are turned towards Washington, as the Muez- 



26 

zin's to Mecca. The Senate chamber is packed, and the illustrious Sen- 
ator rises. After an historic sketch of existing difficulties ; after reading 
from the speeches which he made in 1832, and in 1846, he proceeds to say 
that he withdraws all opposition to a tariff, — to any tariff! He will not offend 
the delicate nerves of Northern manufacturers by further hostility. Were 
a bill then before him, he would not oppose it. '"Take the schedules, " 
says he, scornfully, to Northern Senators, " and fill up the blanks from A to Z 
with what per-centages you please. For ad valorem rates, put in minimums 
and maximums at your pleasure. I will ' taunt ' you no longer. I am for 
peace and the glorious Union. I have discovered an irrepealable and ir- 
reversible law of nature, which overrules all the devices of men. You can- 
not make one yard of woollens or cottons in New England. There, water has 
no gravity, steam has no force, and wheels will not revolve. In Vermont 
and New York, wool will not grow on sheeps' backs. I have penetrated the 
geology of Pennsylvania, and through all its stratifications, there is not 
a thimble-full of coal, nor an ounce of iron ore ; and, if there were, com- 
bustion would not help to forge it ; for oxygen and cai'bon are divorced. 
As Massachusetts contributed one-third of the men and one-third of the 
money, to carry on the Revolutionary War, I am willing to compensate her 
for her lost blood and treasure, to the amount of hundreds of millions of dol- 
lars, with which she may fertilize the barrenness of her genius, and indulge her 
insane love for churches and schools." Had the great Southern Senator 
spoken thus, I think that even idolatrous, man-worshipping South Carolina, 
— a State which Mr. Calhoun has ruled and moved for the last twenty-five 
years, as a puppet-showman plays Punch and Judy, — would have sent forth, 
through all her organs, a voice of unanimous dissent. 

As much as Freedom is higher than Tariff, so much stronger than their 
dissent should be ours. 

Mr. Webster's averment that he would not " re-afl&rm an ordinance of 
Nature, nor reenact the will of Grod," [p. 44,] has been commented on 
more pungently than I am able or willing to do. It has been said that all 
law and all volition must be in harmony with the will of the Good Spirit or 
with that of the Evil One ; and, if we will not reenact the will of the former, 
then, either all legislation ceases, or we must register the decrees of the 
latter. But one important and pertinent consideration belongs to this 
subject, which I have nowhere seen developed. It is this : Endless doubts 
and contradictions exist among men, as to what is the will of God ; and on 
no subject is there a wider diversity of opinion than on this very subject of 
slavery. Whose law v^s reenacted by the Ordinance of 1787? whose, 
when the African slave-trade was prohibited ? whose, when it was declared 
piracy? True, it is useless to put upon our statute-books an astronomical 
law, regulating sunrise, or high tides ; but that is physical and beyond the 
jurisdiction of man, while slavery belongs to morals, and is within the juris- 



21 

diction of man. Cease to transcribe upon the statute-book what our wisest 
and best men believe to be the will of God in regard to our worldly affairs, 
and the passions which we think appropriate to devils will soon take posses- 
sion. of society. In regard to slavery, piracy, and so forth, there are multi- 
tudes of men, whose fear of the penal sanctions of another life is very much 
aided by a little salutary fine and imprisonment in this. Look at tliat noble 
array of principles which is contained in the Declaration of Rights in the 
Constitution of Massachusetts. Is it not a most grand and beautiful ex- 
position of " the will of God," — a transcript as it were, from the Book of 
Life. So of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Yet 
our fathers thought it no tampering with holy things to enact them ; and, in 
times of struggle and peril, they have been to many a tempted man as an 
anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast. 

I approach Mr. Webster's treatment of the Texas question with no 
ordinary anxiety. Having been accustomed from my very boyhood to re- 
gard him as the almost infallible expounder of constitutional law, it is im- 
possible to describe the struggle, the revulsion of mind, with which I have 
passed from an instructed and joyous acquiescence in his former opinions to 
unhesitating dissent from his present ones. 

I must premise that I cannot see any necessary or beneficial connection 
between the subject of new Texan States and the admission of California 
and the government of the territories. The former refers to some indefinite 
future, when, from its fruitful womb of slavery, Texas shall seek to cast forth 
an untimely birth. In this excited state of the country, — at this critical 
juncture of our affairs, when there is sober talk of massacring a majority of 
the House of Representatives on their own floor, and a Senator, instead of 
threatening to hang a brother Senator on the highest tree, provided he could 
catch him in his own State, now draws a revolver of six barrels on another 
brother Senator, on the floor of the Senate, in mid session ; — at such a time, 
I say, when, however few Abels there may be at work in the political field, 
there are Cains more than enough, would it not have been well to have 
said, " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" ? 

As the basis of his argument, Mr. Webster quotes the following resolu- 
tion : 

" New States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to 
said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter by the con- 
sent of the said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be en- 
titled to admission under the provisions of the Federal constitution. And such 
States as maybe formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of 36 deg. 
30 min. north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be 
admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each State ask- 
ing admission may desire ; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of 
said territory north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery or involuntary 
servitude, (excex^tfor crime,) shall be prohibited." 



Note here, first, that only ''four'' States are to be admitted in " addi- 
tion to said State of Texas ; " and second, that " such State or States " (in 
the plural) as shall be formed from territory north of 36 deg., 30 min., 
shall he free. If ttoo, or only one free State is to exist on the north side of 
the line, then how many will be left for the south side ? I should expose 
myself to ridicule were I to set it down arithmetically, /o?<?' minus one, equal 
to three. Yet Mr. Webster says " the guaranty is, that new States shall be 
made out of it, [the Texan territory,] and that such States as are formed out 
of that portion of Texas lying South of 36 deg., 30 min., may come in as 
slave States, to the number of four, in addition to the State then in exist- 
ence, and admitted at that time by these resolutions ; " p. 29. 

Here Mr. Webster gives outright to the South and to slavery, one more 
State than was contracted for, — assuming the contract to be valid. He 
makes a donation, a gratuity, of an entire slave State, larger than many a 
European principality. He transfers a whole State, with all its beating 
hearts, present and future, with all its infinite susceptibilities of weal or woe, 
from the side of freedom to that of slavery, in the leger-book of humanity. 
What a bridal gift for the harlot of bondage ! 

Was not the bargain hard enough, according to its terms ? Must we fulfil 
it, and go beyond it? Is a slave State, which dooms our brethren of the 
human race, perhaps interminably, to the vassal's fate, so insignificant a 
trifle, that it may be flung in, as small change on the settlement of an ac- 
count ? Has the South been so generous a copartner, as to deserve this 
distinguished token of our gratitude ? 

Why, by parity of reasoning, could he not have claimed all the four States, 
"in addition to said State of Texas," as free States? The resolutions 
divide the territory into two parts, one north and one south of the line of 
36" 30'. Could not Mr Webster have claimed the four States for Freedom 
with as sound logic, and with far better humanity than he surrendered them 
to Slavery ? When Texas and the South have got their slave States " to 
the number of four ^^ into the Union, whence are we to obtain our one or 
more free States ? The contract will have been executed, and the consent of 
Texas for another State will be withheld. 

Notwithstanding all this, IMr. Webster affirms the right of slavery to four 
more States, in the following words : " I know no form of legislation which 
can strengthen this. I know no mode of recognition that can add a tittle of 
weight to it." Catching the tone of his asseveration, I respond that I 
know no form of statement, nor process of reasoning, which can make it 
more clear that this is an absolute and wanton surrender of the rights of the 
North and the rights of humanity. 

But I hold the Texan resolutions to have been utterly void ; and proceed 
to give the reasons for my opinion. 

I begin by quoting Mr. Webster against himself. In an Address to the 



people of the United States, from tlie Massacliusetts Anti-Texas State Con- 
vention, January 29th, 1845, the subjoined passage, which is understood, 
or rather, I may say, is now well known, to have been dictated by Mr. Web- 
ster himself, may be found : 

" But we desire not to be misunderstood. According to our convictions, 
there is no power in any branch of the government, or all its branches, to 
annex foreign territory to this Union. "We have made the foregoing remarks 
only to show, that, if any fair construction could show such a power to exist 
any where, or to be exercised in any form, yet the manner of its exercise 
now proposed is destitute of all decent semblance of constitutional pro- 
priety ^ 

Thus cancelling the authority of Mr. Webster in 1850 by the authority 
of Mr. Webster in 1845, 1 proceed with the argument. 

Though the annexation of Texas was in pursuance of a void stipulation, 
yet it is a clear principle of law that when a contract void between the par- 
ties, has been executed by them, it cannot then be annulled. If executed, 
it becomes valid, not by virtue of the contract, but by vu-tue of the execu- 
tion. I bow to this legal principle, and would fulfil it. But any indepen- 
dent stipulation which remains unexecuted, remains invalid. Such is that part 
of the annexation resolutions which provides for the admission of a brood of 
Texan States. The resolutions themselves say in express terms, that the new 
States are to be admitted " under the provisions of the Federal Constitution ;" 
and the Constitution says, " New States may be admitted hy the Congress into 
this Union." By what Congress? Plainly, by the Congress in session at the 
time when application for admission is made ; and by no other. The fourth 
Texan State may not be ready for admission for fifty years to come ; and 
could the Congress of 1845 bind the Congress of 1900 ? The Congress of 
1900 and all future Congresses, will derive their authority from the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and not from any preceding Congress. Put the case 
in a negative form. Could the Congress of 1845 bind all future Congresses 
not to admit new States, and thus, pro tanto, annul the Constitution ? 
Positive or negative, the result is the same. No previous Congress, on such 
a subject, can enlarge or limit the power of a subsequent one. Whenever, 
therefore, the question of a new Texan State comes up for consideration, 
the Congress then in being must decide it on its own merits, untrammeled 
by anything their predecessors have done ; and especially free from a law 
which, while similar in spirit, is a thousand times more odious in principle 
than statutes of mortmain. 

Admitting that a future Congress, on such a subject, might be bound by 
a treaty, I answer that here was no treaty ; while the fact that a treaty clause 
was introduced into the resolutions, in the Senate, for the sake of obtaining 
certain votes that would never otherwise have been given in their favor, and 
under an express pledge from the Executive that the method by treaty should 



be adopted, which pledge was forthwith iniquitously broken, leaves no ele- 
ment of baseness and fraud by wh h this proceeding was not contaminated. 
In the name of the Constitution, then, and of justice, let every honest man 
denounce those resolutions as void, alike in the forum of law and in the fo- 
rum of conscience ; and, admitting Texas herself to be in the Union, yet, 
when application is made for any new State from that territory, let the ques- 
tion be decided upon the merits it may then possess. 

And was not Mr. Webster of the same opinion, when, in Faneuil Hall, 
in November, 184.5, after the Resolutions of Annexation bad passed, he 
made the following emphatic, but unprophetie, declaration : 

" It is thought, it is an idea I do not say how well founded, that there 
may yet be a hope for resistance to the consummation of the act of annexa- 
tion. I can only say for one that if it should fall to my lot to have a vote 
on such a question, and I vote for the admission into this Union of 
ANY State with a constitution which prohibits even the legisla- 
ture FROM EVER SETTING THE BONDMEN FREE, I SHALL NEVER 

SHOW MY HEAD AGAIN, DEPEND UPON IT, IN FANEUIL 
HALL." 

There is another objection to any future claim of Texas to be divided 
into States, which grows out of her own neglect to fulfil the terms and spirit 
of the agreement. In the "territory north of the Missouri coniproniise 
line, slavery or involuntary servitude, (except for crime,) shall be prohibit- 
ed." So reads the bond. But if Texas suffers slavery to be extended over 
that part of her territory, then, when it becomes populous enough for ad- 
mission, and is overspread with slavery, a new State may present a free con- 
stitution, be admitted by Congress, and before the slaves have time to escape, 
or to carry the question of freedom before the judicial tribunals, Presto ! this 
free constitution will be changed into a slave constitution, under the alleged 
right of a State to decide upon its own domestic institutions, and thus the 
word of promise which was kept to the ear, will be broken to the hope. If 
Texas meant to abide by the resolutions of annexation, and to claim anything 
under them, it was her clear and imperative duty forthwith to pass a law, 
securing freedom to every inhabitant north of the compromise line. In this 
way only can the resolutions be executed in their true spirit. That territory 
is now in the condition of an egg. It is undergoing incubation. From it a 
State is hereafter to be hatched ; but before promising to accept the chick, it 
■would be agreeable to know whether a viper had impregnated the egg. 

But there is a still further objection, of who.se soundness I have no doubt ; 
but should I be in error in regard to it, the mistake will not invalidate any 
other argument. The parties to that agreement stipulated on the ground of 
mutualitity, whout which all contracts are void .Some States were to be 
admitted to strengthen the hands of slavery, and some of freedom. A line of 
demarcation was drawn. Now, on investigation, I believe it will most con- 



25 

clusively appear that there is not an inch of Texan territory north of the 
stipulated line. It all belongs to New Mexico, as much as Nantucket or 
Berkshire belongs to Massachusetts. It was a mistake on the part of the 
contracting parties ; if, on the part of Texas, it was not something worse than 
a mistake. The mutuality, then, fails. The contract is nudum pactum. 
Texas can give nothing for what she was to receive ; and is, therefore, enti- 
tled to receive nothing but what she has got. 

In regard to " the business of seeing that fugitives are delivered up," 
Mr. Webster says : " My friend at the head of the Judiciary Committee, 
[Mr. Butler of South Carolina,] has a bill on the subject now before the 
Senate, with some adraendments to it, which I propose to support, with all 
its provisions, to the fullest extent." 

Here is Mr. Butler's bill, with Mr. Mason's amendments : 

A BILL 

To provide for the more effectual execution of the third clause of the second section of 
the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, That when a person held to service or labor in any 
State or Territory of the United States, under the laws of such State or Terri- 
tory, shall escape into any other of the said States or Territories, the person to 
whom such service or labor may be due, his or her agent, or attorney, is hereby 
empowered to seize or arrest such fugitive from service or labor, and take him 
or her before any judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States, or 
before any commissioner, or clerk of such courts, or marshal thereof, or any 
postmaster of the United States, or collector of the customs of the United States, 
residing or being within such State wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, 
and upon proof to the satisfaction of said judge, commissioner, clerk, marshal, 
postmaster, or collector, as the case may be, either by oral testimony or affidavit 
taken before and certified by any person authorized to administer an oath under 
the laws of the United States, or of any State, that the person so seized or arrested 
under the laws of the State or Territory from which he or she fled, owe service 
or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such judge, 
commissioner, clerk, marshal, postmaster, or collector, to give a certificate thereof 
to such claimant, his or her agent, or attorney, which certificate shall be a sufficient 
warrant for taking and removing such fugitive from service or labor, to the State 
or Territory from which he or she fled. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That when a person held to service or labor, 
as mentioned in the first section of this act, shall escape from such service or 
labor, as therein mentioned, the person to whom such service or labor may be 
due, his or her agent, or attorney, may apply to any one of the officers of the 
United States named in said section, other than a marshal of the United States, 
for a warrant to seize and arrest such fugitive, and upon affidavit being made 
before such officer, (each of whom for the purposes of this act is hereby authorized 
to administer an oath or affirmation) by such claimant, his or her agent, that such 
person does, under the laws of the State or Territory from which he or she fled, 
owe service or labor to such claimant, it shall be, and is hereby made, the duty 
of such officer, to and before whom such application and affidavit is made, to 



23 

issue his warrant to any marshal of any of the courts of the United States to 
seize and arrest such alleged fugitive and to bring him or her forthwith, or on a 
day to be named in such warrant, before the officer issuing such M-arrant, or 
either of the officers mentioned in said first section, except the marshal to whom 
the said warrant is directed, which said warrant or authority the said marshal is 
hereby authorized and directed in all things to obey. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That upon affidavit made as aforesaid by the 
claimant of such fugitive, his agent or attorney, after such certificate has been 
issued, that he has reason to apprehend that such fugitive will be rescued by 
force from his or their possession, before he can be taken beyond the limits of 
the State in which the arrest is made, it shall be the duty of the officer making 
the an-est to retain such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the 
State whence he fled, and there to deliver him to said claimant, his agent or 
attorney. And to this end, the officer aforesaid is hereby authorized and required 
to employ so many persons as he may deem necessary to overcome such force, 
and to retain them in his service so long as cuxumstances may require. The said 
officer and his assistants, while so employed, to receive the same compensation, 
and to be allowed the same expenses as are now allowed by law for transporta- 
tion of criminals, to be certified by the judge of the district within which the 
arrest is made, and paid out of the treasury of the United States : Provided, 
that before such charges are incurred, the claimant, his agent, or attorney, shall 
secure to said officer payment of the same, and in case no actual force be opjoosed, 
then they shall be paid by such claimant, his agent, or attorney. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, When a wai-rant shall have been issued by 
any of the officers under the second section of this act, and there shall be no 
marshal or deputy marshal within ten miles of the place where such warrant is 
issued, it shall be the duty of the officer issuing the same, at the request of the 
claimant, his agent, or attorney, to appoint some fit and discreet person, who 
shall be willing to act as marshal, for the purpose of executing said warrant, and 
such person so appointed shall, to the extent of executing said warrant and 
detaining and transporting the fugitive named therein, have all the power and 
authority, and be, with his assistants, entitled to the same compensation and 
expenses i^rovided in this act in cases w^here the sei'\'ices are performed by the 
marshals of the courts. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That any person who shall knowingly and 
wUlingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person 
or persons assisting him, her, or them, in so serving or arresting such fugitive 
from service or labor, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent, 
or attorney, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given or declared, 
or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor to escape from 
such claimant, his agent or attorney, or shall harbor or conceal such person, after 
notice that he or she was a fugitive from labor, as aforesaid, shall, for either of 
the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars, which penalty 
may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt in 
any court proper to try the same, saving, moreover, to the person claiming such 
labor or sersdce, his right of action for, on account of, the said injuries, or either 
of them. 

Sec. 6. A7id be it further enacted. That when said person is seized or arrested 
under, and by virtue of the said warrant, by such marshal, and is brought before 
either of the officers aforesaid, other than said marshal, it shall be the duty of 



27 

such officer to proceed in the case of such person, in the same way as he is 
dii-ected and authorized to do when such person is seized and arrested by the 
person claiming him, or by his or her agent, or attorney, and is brought before 
such officer under the provisions of the first section of this act. 
AmendmexVTS intended to he proposed by Mr. Mason to the bill (S. 23), to provide for 

the more effectual execution of the third clause of the second section of the fourth 

article of the Constitution of the United States : 

At the end of section 5, add : 

And any person or persons offending against the provisions of this section, to 
be moreover deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, or in obstructing the due execu- 
tion of the laws of the United States, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined 
in the sum of one thousand dollars, one half whereof shall be to the use of the 
informer ; and shall also be imprisoned for the term of twelve months. 

At the end of section 6, add : 

And in no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such fugitive 
be admitted in evidence. 

It will be observed that the first section of the bill, after constituting the 
judges of the courts, the seventeen thousand postmasters, the collectors, 
&c., as tribunals, without appeal, for the delivery of any body, who is 
sworn by anybody, anywhere, to be a fugitive slave, refers to the before- 
mentioned officers in the words " residing or being within such State where 
such seizure or arrest is made." That is, the judge, postmaster, collector, 
&c., need not be an inhabitant of the State, or hold his office in the State, 
where the seizure is made ; but it is sufficient if he is such officer any where 
within the United States. Mr. Butler or Mr. Mason, therefore, may send 
the postmaster of his own city or village, into Massachusetts, with an agent 
or attorney, who brings his affidavit from South Carolina or Virginia, in his 
pocket ; the agent or attorney may arrest anybody, at any time, carry him 
before his accomplice, go through with the judicial forms, and hurry him to 
the South ; — the officer, after his judicial functions are discharged, turning 
bailiff, protecting the prey and speeding the flight ! 

Still further ; this bill derides the trial by jury, secured by the Constitu- 
tion. A man may not lose a horse without a right to this trial ; but he may 
his freedom. Mr. Webster spoke for the South and for slavery ; not for 
the North and for freedom, when he abandoned this right. Such an abandon- 
ment, it would be impossible to believe of one who has earned such fame as 
Defender of the Constitution ; it would be more reasonable to suppose the 
existence of some strange misapprehension, had not Mr. Webster, with that 
precision and strength which are so peculiarly his own, declared his deter- 
mination to support this hideous bill, " with all its provisions to the fullest 
extent," when, at the same moment, another bill, of which he took no notice, 
was pending before the Senate, introduced by Mr. Seward of New York, 
securing the invaluable privilege of a jury trial. 

I disdain to avail myself, in a sober argument, of the popular sensitive- 
ness on this subject ; and I acknowledge my obligations to the Constitution 



28 

while it is suffered to last. But still I say, that the man who can read this 
bill without having his blood boil in his veins, has a power of refrigeration 
that would cool the tropics. 

I cannot doubt that Mr. Webster will yet see the necessity of reconsider- 
ing his position, on this whole question. 

Mr. Webster says : "It is my firm opinion, this day, that within the last 
twenty years as much money has been collected and paid to the abolition 
societies, abolition presses, and abolition lecturers, as would purchase the 
freedom of every slave, man, woman and child, in the State of Maryland, 
and send them all to Liberia." 

The total number of slaves in Maryland, according to the last census, 
amounted to 89,405. At S250 apiece, — which is but about half the value 
commonly assigned to Southern slaves by Southern men, — this would be 
^22,373,750. Allowing $30 each for transportation to Liberia, without 
any provision for them after their arrival there, the whole sum would be 
$25,058,600, — in round numbers twenty-five millions of dollars ! — more 
than a million and a quarter in each year, and about thirty-five hundred 
dollars per day. I had not supposed the abolitionists had such resources at 
their command. 

I have dwelt thus long upon Mr. Webster's speech, because in connection 
with his two votes in favor of Mr. Foote's committee of compromise, which 
votes, had they been the other way, would have utterly defeated the com- 
mittee, it is considered to have done more to jeopard the great cause of free- 
dom in the territories, than any other event of this disastrous session. I 
have spoken of Mr. Webster by name, and I trust, in none but respectful 
terms. I might have introduced other names, or examined his positions, 
without mentioning him. I have taken what seemed to me the more manly 
course ; and if these views should ever by chance fall under his eye, I 
believe he has magnanimity enough to respect me more for the frankness I 
have used. If I am wrong, I will not add to an error of judgment, the 
meanness of a clandestine attack. If I am right, no one can complain ; for 
we must all bow before the majesty of Truth. 

I have now noticed the principal events which have taken place in Con- 
gress, and which have led to what military men would call the " demoraliza- 
tion ' ' of many of the rank and file of its members. Some recent movements 
have brought vividly to mind certain historical recollections in regard to the 
African slave trade, now execrated by all civilized nations. When the 
immortal Wilberforce exposed to public gaze the secrets of that horrid trafiic, 
his biographer says, " The first burst of generous indignation promised 
nothing less than the instant abolition of the trade, but mercmdile jealousy 
had taken the alarm, and the defenders of the West India system found 
themselves strengthened by the independent alliance of commercial mcn.^^ 
— Life of Wilberforce, vol. I, p. 291. 



29 

Again; opposition to Wilberforce's motion " arose amongst the Guinea 
merchants " — " reinforced, however, before long by the great body of 
West India planters." — Ibid. 

The Corporation of Liverpool spent, first and last, upwards of £10,000 in 
defence of a traffic which even the gravity and calmness of judicial decisions 
have since pronounced " infernal." 

" Besides printing works in defence of the slave trade and remunerating 
their authors ; paying the expenses of delegates to attend in London and 
watch Mr. Wilberforce's proceedings, they pensioned the widows of Norris 
and Grree, and voted plate to Mr. Penny, for their exertions in this cause." 
—Ibid. p. 345. 

It is said that the Corporation of Liverpool, at this time, "believed firmly 
that the very existence of the city depended upon the continuance of the 
traffic." Look at Liverpool now, and reflect what greater rewards, even 
of a temporal nature, God reserves for men that abjure dishonesty and 
crime. 

All collateral motives were brought to bear upon the subject, just as they 
are at the present time. The Guinea trade was defended " as a nursery for 
seamen."— lb., p. 293. 

Even as late as 1816, the same class of men, in the same country, opposed 
the abolition of " white slavery " in Algiers, from the same base motives of 
interest. It was thought that the danger of navigating the Mediterranean, 
caused by the Barbary Corsairs, was advantageous to British commerce ; 
because it might deter the merchant ships of other nations from visiting it. 
After Lord Exmouth had compelled the Algerines to liberate their Euro- 
pean slaves, he proceeded against Tunis and Tripoli. In giving an account 
of what he had done, he defends his conduct " upon general principles," 
but adds, " as applying to our own country, [Great Britain,] it may not be 
borne out, the old mercantile interest being against it.'' — Osier's Life of 
Exmouth, p. 303. 

So after Admiral Blake, in the time of Cromwell, had attacked Tunis, he 
says, in his despatch to Secretary Thurloe, " And now seeing it hath 
pleased God soe signally to justify us herein, I hope his highnes will not 
be offended at it, nor any who regard duly the honor of the nation, although 
I expect to have the c/amor* of interested men." — (Thurloe's State Pa- 
pers, vol. 11, p. 390.) And is Commerce, the daughter of Freedom, thus 
forever to lift her parricidal hand against the parent that bore her ? Are 
rich men forever to use their " thirty pieces of silver," or their " ten thousand 
pounds sterling," or their hundreds of thousands of dollars, to reward the 
Judases for betraying their Saviour ? Viewed by the light of our increased 
knowledge, and by our more elevated standard of duty, the extension of 
slavery into California or New Mexico, at the present time, or even the sul^ 
france of it there, is a vastly greater crime than was the African slave trade 



30 

itself, in the last century ; and I would rather meet the doom of posterity 
or of heaven, for being engaged in the traffic then, than for being accessary 
to its propagation now. 

Let those who aid, abet, or connive at slavery extension now, as they 
read the damning sentence which history has awarded against the actors, 
abettors and connivers of the African trade, hut change the names, and they 
will be reading of themselves. Should our new territories be hereafter filled 
with groaning bondmen, should they become an American Egypt, tyrannized 
over by ten thousand Pharaohs, it will be no defence for those who permit- 
ted it, to say, " We hoped, we supposed, we trusted, that slavery could not 
go there ; " Nemesis, as she plies her scorpion lash, will reply, " Tou might 
have made it certain^ 

On this great question of freedom or slavery, I have observed with grief, 
nay, with anguish, that we, at the North, break up into hostile parties, hurl 
criminations and recrimuiations to and fro, and expend that strength for the 
ruin of each other, which should be directed against the enemies of Liberty ; 
while, at the South, whenever slavery is in jeopardy, all party lines are ob- 
literated, dissensions are healed, enemies become friends, and all are found 
in a solid column, with an unbroken front. Are the children of darkness 
to be forever so much wiser than the children of light 'I In the recent 
choice of delegates for the Nashville Convention, I have not seen a single 
instance where Whig and Democrat have not been chosen as though they 
were Siamese twins, and must go together. But here it often happens, that 
as soon as one party is known to be in favor of one man, this act alone is 
deemed a sufficient reason why another party should oppose him. Why can 
we not combine for the sacred cause of freedom, as they combine for 
slavery ? No thought or desire is further from my mind than that of inter- 
fering with any man's right of suffrage ; but if (which is by no means im- 
possible, nor perhaps improbable,) the fate of New Mexico should be de- 
cided by one vote, and my vote should have been the cause of a vacancy in 
any Congressional District that might have sent a friend to freedom, I 
should say, with Cain, " My punishment is greater than I can bear." 

On the subject of the present alienation and discord between the North 
and the South, I wish to say that I have as strong a desire for reconciliation 
and amity as any one can have. There is no pecuniary sacrifice within the 
limits of the Constitution, which I would not willingly make for so desirable 
an object. Public revenues I would appropriate — private taxation I would 
endure — to relieve this otherwise thrice glorious Republic, from the calamity 
and the wrong of slavery. I would not only resist the devil, but if he will 
flee from me, I will build a bridge of gold to facilitate his escape. I mention 
this to prove that it is not the value, in money, of territorial freedom, for which 
I contend, but its value in character, in justice, in human happiness. 
While I utterly deny the claim set up by the South, yet I would gladly con- 



31 

sent that my southern fellow citizens should go to the territories and carry 
there every kind of property which I can carry. I would then give to the 
Southern States their full share of all the income ever to be derived from the 
sales of the public lands, or the leasing of the public mines ; and whatever, 
after this deduction, was left in the public treasury, should be appropriated 
for the whole nation, as has been the practice heretofore. That is, in con- 
sideration of excluding slavery from the territories, I would give the South 
a double share, or even a three-fold share, of all the income that may ever be 
derived from them. Pecuniary surrenders I would gladly make for the sake 
of peace, but not for peace itself would I surrender Liberty. 

It would be to suppose our merchants and manufacturers void of common 
foresight, could they believe that concession now will bring security here- 
after. By yielding the moral question, they jeopard their pecuniary inter- 
ests. Should the South succeed in their present attempt upon the territories, 
they will impitiently await the retirement of Gen. Taylor from the Execu- 
tive Chair, to add the " State of Cuba," with its 500,000 slaves, its igno- 
rance and its demoralization, to their roll of triumph. California will be a 
free trade State, by the most certain of all biases. They will have nothing 
to sell but gold ; they will have everything to buy — from cradles to coffins, 
and all between. If New Mexico is slave, it will also be free trade ; and 
Cuba as certainly as either — though in that island facilities for smuggling 
will reduce the difference between tariff and free trade to nothing. A sur- 
render therefore, by our Northern business men, will be most disastrous to 
the very business that tempts them to surrender. Will they take no warn- 
ing from the fact that their apathy in regard to Texas repealed the tariff of 
1842? This is a low motive, I admit ; but it may be set as a back-fire to 
the motive by which some of them appear to be influenced. There was no 
nood, not a shadow of need, of perilling any principle, or any interest. 
Had the North stood firm, had they been true to the great principles they 
have so often and so solemnly proclaimed, the waves of Southern violence 
would have struck harmless at their feet. He is not learned in the weather 
who does not know that storms from the South, though violent, are short. We 
are assailed now because we have yielded before. The compromise of 1820 
begat the nullification of 1882 ; the compromise of 1832 inspired the mad 
exploit of compassing Texas, which our greater madness made sane. The 
moral paralysis which failed to oppose the Mexican war, has given us the 
territories. If the territories are now surrendered, we shall have Cuba, and 
an indefinite career of conquest and of slavery will be opened on our South- 
western border. Every new concession transfers strength from our side to 
the side of our opponents ; and if we cannot arrest our own course wlien we 
are just entering the rapids, how can we arrest it when we come near the verge 
of the cataract ? The South may ride the Union, but they cannot divide it. 
Their whole Atlantic seaboard is open to attack, and powerless for defence ; 



and the Mississippi river may as easily be divided physically as politically 
into independent portions. With these advantages, let us never aggress 
upon their rights, but let us maintain our own. 

Fellow-citizens, I would gladly relieve the darkness of this picture by some 
gleams of light. There are two hopes which, as yet, are not wholly extin- 
guished in my mind. Beyond all question a compromise bill will be reported 
by the committee of thirteen, and will pass the Senate, and free California 
will be made to carry as great a burden of slavery as she can bear. It is 
still possible that the House will treat as it deserves this adulterous union. A 
single vote may turn the scale, and Massachusetts may give that vote. Not 
improbably, too, the fate of the bill may depend upon the earnestness and 
decision with which Northern constituencies make their sentiments known to 
their representatives, whether by petitions, by private letters, or by public 
resolutions. Let every lover of freedom do his best and his most. 

Should the North fail, I have still one hope more. It is that New 
Mexico will do for herself what we shall have basely failed to do for her. If 
both these hopes fail, our country is doomed to run its unobstructed career of 
conquest, of despotism, and of infamy. 

I have now, my fellow-citizens, given you my " Yiews and Opinions " on 
the present crisis in our public affairs. Had I regarded my own feelings I 
should have spoken less at length ; but the subject has commanded me. 
I trust I have spoken respectfully towards those from whom I dissent, while 
speaking my own sentiments justly and truly. I have used no asperity, for 
all ray emotions have been of grief and not of anger. My words have been 
cool as the telegraphic wires, while my feelings have been like the lightning 
that runs through them. The idea that Massachusetts should contribute, or 
consent, to the extension of Human Slavery ! — is it not enough, not merely 
to arouse the living from their torpor, but the dead from their graves 1 Were 
I to help it, nay, did I not oppose it with all the powftrs and feculties which 
God has given me, I should see myriads of agonized faces glaring out upon me 
from the future, more terrible than Duncan's at Macbeth ; and I would rather 
feel an assassin's poignard in my breast than forever hereafter to see the 
"the air-drawn dagger" of a guilty imagination. In Massachusetts, the 
great drama of the Revolution begun. Some of its heroes yet survive 
amongst us. At Lexington, at Concord, and on Bunker Hill, the grass 
still grows greener where the soil was fattened with the blood of our fathers. 
If, in the providence of God, we must be vanquished in this contest, let it be 
by force of the overmastering and inscrutable powers above us, and not by 
our own base desertion. 

I am, gentlemen, your much honored, obliged and obedient servant, 

Horace Mann. 



54 



OEIGINAL NARRATIVE 

OF THE 

BOSTON MASSACHE. 



" A Narrative of the Honid Massacre in Boston, perpetrated on the evening of the 
fifth day of March, 1770, by soldiers of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, which, with the 
Fourteenth Regiment, was then quartered there : with some observations on the state 
of things prior to that catastrophe, originally printed by order of the Town of Boston, 
and sold by Edes & Gill, in Queen Street: " reprinted by J. Doggett, New York, and 
now sold by Redding & Co., No. 8 State Street, Boston, (in the immediate vicinity of 
the place where the tragedy occurred,) — 1 Volume, 8vo, 120 pages, — illustrated with 
an excellent copy of Paul Revere's picture of the event, and "a new and accurate Plan 
of the Town of Boston in New England." The work contains the original official 
account of the Boston Massacre of the fifth of March, 1770. It was drawn up by a 
committee appointed by the town, consisting of the Honorable James Bowdoin, Dr. 
Joseph Warren, and Samuel Pemberton, Esq. The Report was submitted to a town 
meeting held at Faneuil Hall, by adjournment, on the 19th March, and was ordered to 
be printed. It was intended principally for circulation in England, and a vessel of war 
was chartered by the town to take out copies to London. The present edition, with 
the exception of the subjoined " additional observations," which are obtained from a 
copy of this work in the Library of Harvard College, is an exact reprint from an origi- 
nal in the Library of the New York Historical Society, containing the full appendix, 
certificates, &c. To which is prefixed an account of the events of the few days preced- 
ing the massacre, drawn up by the late Hon. Alden Bradford, and a Report made by 
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, and others. The whole presenting, 
it is believed, the most complete and authentic account that has been published of the 
Massacre. 

IVeatly Bound in Clotli, — Price 50 Cents. 



REDDING & CO., 

No. 8 State Street. 



SPEECH OF HORACE OIANN, 

OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



ON THE StTB.TECT OF 



SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES, 



AND 



THE CONSEQUENCES OF A DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION. 

Delivered in the United States House of Representatives, Feb. 15, 1850. 
IN A NEAT PAMPHLET, UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT ADDRESS, 
Price 12^ Cents. 

KEDDING 8c CO., PuUishers. 

No. 8 StPte Street. 


















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